The Baltic Way - Prime Minister Straujuma remembers

Take note – story published 9 years ago

In a rare English language interview, Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma tells LSM about the importance of the Baltic Way and the difference between her feelings then and now. 

The Baltic Way - Straujuma remembers
00:00 / 01:05
Lejuplādēt

Earlier the same day, Straujuma told a conference dedicated to the Baltic Way about her emotions on that momentous day 25 years ago, how as a member of the Latvian Popular Front she would pretend to be visiting friends for birthday parties in order to hold meetings.

"Today we can smile about it but we had to have meetings with a certain conspiratorial tone – we pretended to have birthdays or names days – we were looking at Dainis [Ivans] with his knitted sweater that he always put on. At that time we really felt the unity of the nation."

She also recalled that she was told by a colleague to hide a membership list she had drawn up in case it fell into the hands of the Soviet authorities.

"I hid it so well in fact I only found it ten years later when I was going through my house," she revealed.

"We could not be robbed of our national aspirations. It was testimony to our loyalty to European values... the Baltic Way was an embodiment of the peoples' force and will. It was our path to freedom and this freedom will not be taken away again. Today I feel honored to have the responsibility of being at the head of the Latvian government," she said.

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